Gardening For Not-Quite Beginners

2-Step Guide To Using A Homemade Solution To Kill Small Areas Of Crabgrass In Your Yard

If you have small patches of crabgrass marring the appearance of your lawn, you may wonder if there is anything homemade you can apply to get rid of it. If so, use the following two-step guide for killing crabgrass using ingredients you may already have or can find in supermarkets or department stores.

Step 1:  Make The Homemade Crabgrass Killer

In this first step, you will be making a homemade crabgrass killer using white distilled vinegar, salt, and dish soap. The vinegar kills the crabgrass by burning the plant's leaves. It is absorbed by the roots of weed, burning the plants from the inside out.

When the salt lands on the foliage, it melts and breaks down the outer layer of the weed's cells, making it more vulnerable to damage. The dish detergent acts as a cohesion agent, keeping the vinegar and salt in place.

To make your crabgrass killer, mix together two cups of vinegar, five tablespoons of salt, and two or three drops of dish detergent. Then, pour the solution into a clean, plastic spray bottle, and go on to the next step.

Step 2:  Spray The Weeds With The Solution

Now that you are armed with your homemade crabgrass killer, it is time to spray the weeds with it. However, it is important to know that vinegar and salt are not selective about the plants they damage or kill. If you get the solution on your grass or treasured bedding plants, it can kill them just like the crabgrass.

When you spray the crabgrass, make sure the nozzle on your spray bottle is set to a tight stream to give you better control of the application. Also, you may want to get on your hands and knees so you can spray the weeds from a few inches above them. This not only gets you close to the crabgrass patches, but it also saves your back from having to bend over.

Saturate each patch of the crabgrass with the homemade killer, then let the solution dry. Repeat the application a week later.

Using the above guide once a week for a month should help you get rid of small areas of crabgrass. However, if your lawn seems to be overrun by the growth, you may want to ask someone at a home and garden business for recommendations about weed control options for killing the crabgrass and restoring your yard's beauty. Check out sites like http://snydersweedcontrol.com/ for more information.


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